IITs to roll out more women civil and mechanical engineers

The Indian Institutes of Technology are set to churn out more women civil and mechanical engineers as many of the 779 female-only seats, added this year, have been allocated to the two streams.
IITs to roll out more women civil and mechanical engineers

NEW DELHI: The Indian Institutes of Technology are set to churn out more women civil and mechanical engineers as many of the 779 female-only seats, added this year, have been allocated to the two streams.

With the Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA)—the seat allocation and managing authority for 23 IITs—coming up with the first round of seat allotments three days ago, about 250 female-only seats in all the institutes were offered in the civil and mechanical engineering streams.

“It has been done because girl students often prefer computer, electric and electronic engineering over the two main engineering branches. But now we are giving them more options,” a senior JoSAA official said.
“This happens because of the mindset that civil and mechanical engineering involves strenuous activities like handling machines and visiting construction sites. But it is far from the truth.”

The most sought-after streams in the IITs are computer science and electrical engineering, followed by mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, engineering design, civil engineering, chemical engineering, metallurgy, biotechnology and naval architecture.

This year, at the behest of the Union Human Resources Development Ministry, the IITs were asked to create 779 supernumerary seats for women—in addition to the 11,279 seats on offer —to take their percentage at the undergraduate level to at least 14.

Another JoSAA official said more seats were offered in these two streams to girl candidates to encourage them to become a part of the IIT system.

“Very often girl candidates fill in few choices and fewer centres, and when they do not get courses of their choice they choose not to take admission. But this year we are offering them a plethora of options by creating seats in streams that were earlier not available at many IITs,” he said.

“We will also encourage them to go for the new courses during the counselling process.”
Of the total number of students who took admission in IITs in 2017, the percentage of girls was a dismal 9.3.

Following this, the government formed a committee of the Joint Admission Board of the IITs to suggest ways to improve the gender balance at the prestigious institutes.

The panel, in its report submitted to the government, said about 3 lakh girls enrol in engineering programmes every year but only 8-9 per cent end up at the IITs. This prompted the ministry to set a target of enrolling about 20 per cent girls in the IITs by 2020.

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The New Indian Express
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